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#apple#terms#service#icloud#photos#devices#accept#don#more#hostage
Discussion (69 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews
Just went through this yesterday. And often my main contact at a company is not the same as the person who can sign the agreement so there is yet another person I need to reach out to.
But heck, even at my company, I don’t control signing that agreement and so I have to bug someone higher up to do it. It’s such a PITA. I curse Apple every time my CI fails due to this.
The only thing I hate more is enterprise signing, literally landlines everywhere.
It actually surprise me how many Linux users that do care about their security & privacy just seem to apply poor judgement when it's about their mobile devices, sure, you might not get the LATEST phone but who cares? Why are people trading their values and expertise the moment they touch the latest Samsung or iPhone? What's so special about them anyway, there is literally alternatives (or just vibe code it) for most softwares on it.
I think it's one of the last remnants of "don't be evil" at Google -- the Pixel devices are quite friendly toward alternative installs, much more so than most manufacturers.
And, now that Motorola and Graphene OS have announced a partnership, future Motorola devices may be a good option as well.
It is unfortunate that Rapsberry Pi 5 got that expensive because I wanted a Keyboard 500+ just for running some Foss Android Distribution (not a phone replacement)
And you often miss out on (for some) essential features like WiFi calling
This is possible to override, of course. But it's not the default, so only the most tech-savvy users make use of the settings that keep your videos and photos local.
All in service of getting you to pay for iCloud storage when your phone starts to contain more data than they offer for free (5GB, which is laughable in 2026).
One also has to wonder if people actually regularly go through thousands of pictures...
For photos you need to upgrade.
I am sorry to tell you but the perfect timing was 8 - 12 months ago before the price of components shot up.
Many a celeb has been bitten by this one, Apple is 100% evil for doing it. I guess they just do it for lulz? Odd for one of the richest companies on earth
Maybe the issue is that it gets enabled by default if you haven’t had an account before?
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I was recently gifted a MacPro6,1 (2013-2016 RIP) [<$], perhaps among Apple's most elegant [computer?] product designs, ever.
It has replaced three other machines, and its "obsolete" 6-core Xeon is more than capable of being a fantastic local fileserver (and upgradable!). It's still able to run a ©20twenty-something operating system (2021? iirc), so even the latest macOS releases can screencast into and fileserve from it. It's native and not cobbled-together mess [0].
[<$] I have no official connection with them, but have been a very happy customer of <http://eshop.macsales.com> (et.al.) for decades – they sell this model for a few hundred dollars, with a short-term warranty (to determine stability) – don't get the D700s, they reputation is flakeyAF – if I hadn't been gifted this phenomenal & "obsolete" machine, I would now purchase one
[0] e.g. native USB3 support (via Thunderbolt2/3 adapter); no OCLP hackintoshing (neat_but_cobbled.gif)
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Of course having spinning HDDs isn't possible inside of this "trashcan" MacPro, but adding an external 4-bay Terramaster (hotswappable) has given me the 24TB fileserver I've always dreamed of... which allowed me to finally retire my MacPro5,1 [•] entirely from the macintosh ecosystem (now a Linux cryptominer/node, only when heating is otherwise on).
[•] The MacPro6,1 with an external hard disk is infinitely more usable than a MacPro5,1 – doesn't require any OCLP and is very very stable/interactive. In my usagecase, I have used four networked spinning platters to replace eight (and removed two other machines entirely from network). This is approximately a 250W continuous load removed from a residential environment, equivalent to your refrigerator running (all the time)
Apple, Google, and Microsoft act like ransomware gangs when it comes to photos. I hope we see the day where all 3 get split into a thousand different companies.
Edit: I just checked and my photos stopped syncing 14 days ago. Thanks for the garbage Apple!!
If I don’t do that, then it just won’t upload them.
Not that I agree with the practice of rug-pulling, but "hostage" is a strong term.
We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48074043 and marked it off topic.
> I never paid for Apple’s iCloud service so I am a little surprised that not only were my pictures uploaded, the local copy was deleted.
no worries, apple can do what microsoft did.
> I never paid for Apple’s iCloud service so I am a little surprised that not only were my pictures uploaded...
Yes?
Apple’s iCloud service provides 5GB for free?
That seems a lot like: "You're going to be using our service, whether you like it or not!"
Pretty uncool?
The solution is to accept the terms, and move on.
If you don't like Apple, backup your photos and move to Android.
Come on.
So, you enable an option to not eat up all your storage and have the originals stored in iCloud, iCloud gets a new TOS, and you complain your originals are 'held hostage'? riiiiiight. I mean, it's doing what you told it to do.
People don’t do that because the terms basically say “you can use the service if you act normal. In the context of providing the service we may do any number of things a normal person would expect us to do.”
Reading them isn’t a good use of tim because most people using the service were going to act normal. But we collectively forced them to make the terms this long by suing companies when the terms weren’t clear and by deciding that the letter of the law matters more than what’s sensible. Accepting long terms of service is just the consequence of our collective decisions.